Diary of a one-time relaxed classical-schooling parent in New York City...
A is in 10th Grade for the 2007-08 school year and is no longer homeschooling as of this year. You are welcome to check out the archives or read my latest banter. Email maitresse AT gmail DOT com

1.11.2005

Live for Today

(couldn't help it, but with all the punk/Stiv Bator talk...)

After much soul-searching, I thought about this entire past year. And I thought about a brunch that A and I had at Essex House this past Sunday.

"These people are cool," said A. "I know," I replied. "I did this for you. Very Bauhaus, isn't it?"

A informed me that he wanted black pants. That was hours before I took him to Trash & Vaudeville and Jimmy Webb outfitted my son with the same pants Joey Ramone picked up six months before his death. Two other friends of mine who shopped with me years ago at that store had also since died (Stiv Bator, who died of injuries after being struck by a car in Paris, and a friend of mine named Tammy, who died of cancer).

When we sat down for brunch at Essex House, I observed a very Harvard-looking fellow at the table next to us. He sported the Harvadania emblem on a cap he was wearing. He laughed hysterically. Constantly. He was flaming. At first, I was annoyed. Then I thought, "Why on earth am I annoyed?" He was being himself. The people in New York don't normally wear their emotions on their sleeve. And I miss that about Florida. The outgoing, tropical sunny demeanor that everyone seems to sport there. It is honest. Real. Authentic. Human.

Then I thought, wouldn't it be great if we could honor who we are, and how we are, naturally? Why put ourselves in a box in a daily basis, and profess that that be the norm?

We moved to a neighborhood that doesn't fit who we are.

A is in a school that doesn't honor who he is.

I worked at the BigLaw job this past year because of how "important" it was and how I thought it would help my self-image (it didn't).

I am reading Alfie Kohn's What Does It Mean To Be Well Educated? Interesting book. In it, it describes the problem in the United States' educational system. It claims that short-term thinking prompt tests to be given ad nauseum...at the cost of long-term educational goals. I thought about A's assignments at school. He has been given tests every single week. Five classes a week.

And so...yesterday morning, I woke up A. at 9:44 a.m. and got his breakfast ready.

We are homeschooling. I guess you could say, we Live for Today, but we Live for Tomorrow, too.